Bomb Detectors May be a Fraud, But They’re Still Everywhere in Iraq

It’s been one week since British businessman James McCormick, 56, was convicted on four counts of fraud in England for selling a dressed-up divining rod to developing world governments as a “bomb detector.”

And it’s been more than two years since Iraqi authorities arrested Major General Jihad al-Jabiri, the army’s bomb squad commander, on corruption charges for taking bribes to purchase Mr. McCormick’s fake explosive detectors.

Such scenes could almost be humorous if they weren’t so terribly tragic: As recently as yesterday some five car bombs killed at least 36 people in cities throughout southern Iraq. Analysts say Iraq now sees as an average of about 800 “violent events” each month. With sectarian violence once again on the rise, some analysts expect that figure to rise to as high as 1,500 per month by summertime.

The ADE 651 is little more than a radio antenna that is allowed to pivot, like a dog’s tail, from the front of a pistol-shaped handle. The holder is instructed to walk around the target and wait for the antenna to point in the general direction of hidden explosives.

According to testimony heard at the Old Bailey during Mr. McCormick’s trial, there is nothing at all behind the ADE 651 except the unconscious prejudices of the person holding the fake device.

The fact that the ADE 651 is also supposed to detect ivory, narcotics, humans and cash, according to the website of Mr. McCormick’s ATSC company, should have been enough to raise eyebrows.

But the ADE 651 is also almost completely empty. It contains no chemicals, no batteries and is supposedly powered by the body energy — “the equipment is powered electro statically,” according to ATSC’s website — of whoever carries it. A simple flick of the wrist can set it off.

According to archives of the ATSC’s website, which has since been taken down, the device used “electromagnetic attraction technology” to find its target, which can be adjusted by changing a brass “sensor card” that searches out unique prey.

“It can narrow-down to identify a specific substance by removing individual detection cards from the unit after first detection is received, until the attraction is lost,” the website said.

The Iraqi government bought about 6,000 such devices for $40 million between 2008 and 2010, according to the BBC, which aired an investigation of Mr. McCormick in 2010. During the trial, the Old Bailey heard that Mr. McCormick had copied the design from a $20 novelty golf ball finder he had seen in the United States.

While many checkpoints use sniffing dogs and mirrors to check the undersides of truck and car carriages for bombs, Mr. McCormick’s so-called “ADE 651” is still the most ubiquitous of all bomb-detecting devices.

When asked why security forces still use such obviously fake gizmos, a spokesman for Iraq’s Ministry of Interior, Brigadier General Sa’ad Ma’an, said the ADEs have a proven, if imperfect, track record.

“Our practical experience on the ground proved that this device is working and it helped us discover explosive materials and weapons,” he said. “So I’m not saying that the device is working 100%, but it helped us a lot.”

By way of an example, Brig. Gen. Ma’an said officers were able to identify and stop an explosives-laden car on Saturday. Security forces will continue to use the device until “we have a better and more efficient” alternative, he said.